Yep, he's 100% a net negative to this thread. Brings absolutely zero value.
CI Wrestling Thread #56
- Thread starter K-mac18
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He's elite at calling people racists and dog whistling though so he's got that going for him.
Listen buddy....I asked you to clean up the way you speak. I didn't ask for the lip or explanation. You lack objectivity. Clean that up.
I’m gonna start talking about how great the worst wrestling moments ever were just because.
Damn that reverse battle royal that TNA did was brilliant, logical booking. It makes total sense that that wrestlers had to pretend they couldn’t get in the ring
Damn that reverse battle royal that TNA did was brilliant, logical booking. It makes total sense that that wrestlers had to pretend they couldn’t get in the ring
It’s just weird. Most of us have eyes on both products and are capable of criticizing or praising either one.
As I’ve often said, the absolute worst thing about AEW is the hardcore mark fanbase.
They pined and begged for that indy/Japanese style to get on TV. Then, they become irrationally outraged when anyone mentions their audience hasn’t grown in 5 years and there’s more to wrestling than 40 minute “bangers” and high spots.
WWE getting its shit together and trending upwards makes it worse for that small subset of fans.
Normal person: Criticizes AEW but also says they watch weekly.
AEW mark response: WHATEVER E DRONE. YOU ARE PROBLEMATIC. YOU SUPPORT RAPE AND ARE PROBABLY RACIST OR SOMETHING. THE BUCKS ARE THE GREATEST TAG TEAM OF ALL TIME AND IF YOU CANT SEE IT, YOU DONT KNOW rEaL WRESTLING.
Normal person: OK then.
I was thinking the opposite. Torrie didn't need to chop up her face but she did.
I think that is key.
I was solely a fan of AEW from 2019 to early-to-mid 2023. Didn't care for WWE's product at all, and was liking what AEW brought to the table. And 2 hours every Wednesday wasn't that big of a time commitment.
Then Cody jumped, and Sami being in the Bloodline was an interesting angle, and then when Cody came back his "finish the story" angle was a compelling draw.
Meanwhile, CM Punk grew disallusioned, ranted like a lunatic and threw hands (looking back, he probably was hoping to be fired right then, but TK tried to keep him and give him his own show which also didn't work out), exposing internal strife in AEW. What seemed at the beginning like a tight-knit group of people going all out to bring real competition with WWE to fruition became fractured when all the outside signings began to affect people's "place."
And just like that, the bloom fell off the rose.
Now, I'm following Raw and Smackdown here and there while keeping up with Dynamite but not Collision or Rampage. WWE just becoming competent was enough for people to get on board. MJF is still my favorite, and when he comes back I will definitely continue to follow him.
But AEW is just kinda broken right now and rudderless, just floating out there, and people are tuning out.
And with all the go-away heat on the Young Bucks, I don't see this new "beat up the boss" angle reversing AEW's fortunes.
I was disappointed in Torrie also. Back in the day she was my girl. The Torrie that came out on Smackdown had me going, "What the hell did you do to yourself!!"
I’m similar to you. I’ve watched wrestling since the late 80s but saw a few periods where interest waned (93-96; 04-06; 15-18). I was sick of WWE and the prospects of a new company were exciting.
I dove all in to AEW in 2019 with an open mind. I enjoyed it because it was different than WWE, but even then, it wasn’t perfect and felt a little indy-riffic for my preferences. But I still watched and supported the company.
In summer 2021 I proclaimed AEW as being miles ahead of WWE. And, as you mentioned, the Punk signing + TK seemingly scooping up every released NXT talent there was made it feel like WWE-lite and it also splintered the fans (and talent). Some wanted the change to bring in a few “names”
from the other side, others thought it ruined their special club (I liken it to a well known underground band finding mainstream success. The audience broadened but the hardcores from the beginning thinks the band “sold out” because the exclusive club wasn’t as exclusive as it once was.)
I think you nailed it with the rudderless reference. AEW can’t seem to make up its mind whether it wants to be its own thing for a subset of the wrestling fanbase or if it wants to continue to look like WWE’s desperate little brother. I would encourage the former because, as we saw with TNA, constantly having WWE’s name in their mouth makes them seem inferior.
Maybe there is good plastic surgery and I can't tell they've had it but there's a lot of bad out there.
One of the IWA Mid-South shows I went to back in the day had a reverse Royal Rumble match where you "lost" by being thrown in the ring. It was actually pretty entertaining.
Raw for this evening...
The draft continues
WWE World Heavyweight Champion Damian Priest & Finn Balor & JD McDonaugh vs. Jey Uso & Ricochet & Andrade.
CM Punk appearing.
WWE United States Champion Logan Paul will appear.
Raw for this evening...
The draft continues
WWE World Heavyweight Champion Damian Priest & Finn Balor & JD McDonaugh vs. Jey Uso & Ricochet & Andrade.
CM Punk appearing.
WWE United States Champion Logan Paul will appear.
I’m in basically the same situation as both of you. I loved AEW early on when the story’s felt more compelling and they carried wrestling during the pandemic but now the product is as stale as it could be and they have way too many shows with everyone on them. They need a brand split. They also need to get rid of rampage.
Collision used to be the best wrestling show on tv. Maybe it's still good but I think I enjoy Punk's mindset of wrestling more than Danielson's. I knew there were problems when Cornette, Russo, Bischoff, Dutch, and Konnan had pretty much the same complaints and none of them are listening to each other, so they're using their experiences in the business to draw similar conclusions as to why AEW isn't doing as well as they should be.
Your typical hardcore AEW fan may turn normal fans off as well. If you aren't in love with the product, you're an e-drone. If you're not seeing long term stories, it's because you're a spoon-fed child who can't handle anything other than WWE. If you're a WWE fan, you're told to always cheer on AEW and if you don't, it means you want people to lose their jobs. Fans don't wanna hear they're the problem. It's like blaming BBN or KSR because Cal ultimately failed. They also try their damndest to cancel people like Triple H, Jericho, and Cornette. It was clear from moment one AEW fans wanted Triple H latched onto the Vince stuff and fired because WWE was doing much better with him leading creative and AEW was sliding backwards. There's some possible shady stuff with Jericho but you can't cancel and fire someone over a vague accusation and a hearted tweet. You can't say Cornette is irrelevant but you also have a desire to see him canceled and ruined in life. So clearly, he's in your head. And the amount of AEW fans online who took the Punk stuff so personally that they wanted him out of wrestling completely and cheered his injury isn't the stuff I grew up with. That's some weird, political type hatred.
I don't know who said it first (maybe TK) but I saw this quote on reddit recently: "To be an AEW fan is to be under constant attack." Your hardcore fan is tribalistic while playing the role of victim at the same time. Turns out, Jack Perry said it best: "Cry me a river!"
Your typical hardcore AEW fan may turn normal fans off as well. If you aren't in love with the product, you're an e-drone. If you're not seeing long term stories, it's because you're a spoon-fed child who can't handle anything other than WWE. If you're a WWE fan, you're told to always cheer on AEW and if you don't, it means you want people to lose their jobs. Fans don't wanna hear they're the problem. It's like blaming BBN or KSR because Cal ultimately failed. They also try their damndest to cancel people like Triple H, Jericho, and Cornette. It was clear from moment one AEW fans wanted Triple H latched onto the Vince stuff and fired because WWE was doing much better with him leading creative and AEW was sliding backwards. There's some possible shady stuff with Jericho but you can't cancel and fire someone over a vague accusation and a hearted tweet. You can't say Cornette is irrelevant but you also have a desire to see him canceled and ruined in life. So clearly, he's in your head. And the amount of AEW fans online who took the Punk stuff so personally that they wanted him out of wrestling completely and cheered his injury isn't the stuff I grew up with. That's some weird, political type hatred.
I don't know who said it first (maybe TK) but I saw this quote on reddit recently: "To be an AEW fan is to be under constant attack." Your hardcore fan is tribalistic while playing the role of victim at the same time. Turns out, Jack Perry said it best: "Cry me a river!"
Yup it’s crazy I’ll occasionally see some Facebook posts about wrestling b/c algorithms and people use terms like “e-drones” and stuff it’s like UL fans typical responses to anything
Yall said it best even like 80s and 90s we favored a certain promotion over another but generally watched them for entertainment and had objective takes about all of them.
Yall said it best even like 80s and 90s we favored a certain promotion over another but generally watched them for entertainment and had objective takes about all of them.
Ludwig Kaiser fills his character out wonderfully. Obviously Gunther is a great talent, but Kaiser complements and accentuates Gunther so well.
McIntyre has gone from schmalzy fan favorite to edgiest of the edgy heels. I still believe Punk is writiing for him.
I'm going to go ahead and predict the next picks:
Raw- The Judgement Day
Smackdown- Final Testament
Raw- The announce team of Cole, Mcafee, and Graves
Smackdown- The announce team of Barrett and Graves.
Next Round:
Raw- Adam Pierce as GM
Smackdown- Naomi
Raw- DIY
Smackdown- The rights to the Smackdown name and logo
Raw- The Judgement Day
Smackdown- Final Testament
Raw- The announce team of Cole, Mcafee, and Graves
Smackdown- The announce team of Barrett and Graves.
Next Round:
Raw- Adam Pierce as GM
Smackdown- Naomi
Raw- DIY
Smackdown- The rights to the Smackdown name and logo
I think to officially separate the rosters because last year Vince came back around draft time and ****ed up some plans. Now they can do a legitimate brand split.
They just basically kept what he put into place last year. I'm pretty sure Strowman had already gone to Raw with Ricochet before he got injured. Everyone else stayed where they were besides LWO and Nia Jax.
You also had Shinsuke, the NXT’ers, and a couple of others. Like I said I think it’s just a way for them to make the brand split they meant to have last year official.
Yes, but there was not enough major moves to constitute a draft. The whole point of a draft is to mix things up and give the opportunities for new/fresh rivalries and different matches. I'm sorry but Shinsuke going to Smackdown doesn’t give me any new rivalries or matches to look forward to.
The LWO doesn't get me excited about any new match opportunities on Raw. The same tag teams that have been on Raw/Smackdown are still on the same shows.
The changes were so minute that they could've just not had a draft and just announced call-ups and the switching of the few who did change.
It just didn't make sense to do this whole big thing for the results we got.
It's like if the NFL did a fantasy draft and every player was thrown into a pool and were up for grabs for any team, but each team just drafted the same exact roster they already had but a few teams switched who their backup punter was.
Like I said, when the final numbers came out it was going to be over 500K. It was actually over 600K.
Fast nationals in the mud.
Fast nationals in the mud.
You could argue that it would be more beneficial to make the draft a streaming special on Peacock and keep going with what they normally do for weekly TV. Hell, put it on live on Wednesday night just to **** with Dynamite’s ratings.
Goldberg killed WCW. And the AWA, NWA, IWA MS, and stampede wrestling. Also probably poisoned Stu and Helen
Last night they made sure to announce Bianca is the first black woman to picked first in the draft. I imagine that had something to do with it.
Too bad they don't have Nyla Rose on the roster. They could have really been progressive by drafting him/her first overall.
- Thought the Draft overall was meh but it needed to be done as a bit of a reset and now Raw is absolutely loaded going into the summer. It's insane how good the Punk and Drew stuff is even when one or now both are injured. Just a testament to putting business first. Without Punk there or that injury during the Rumble match, Drew is probably feuding with Sami and then maybe Sheamus.
- The NXT call-ups were wholesome af. Loved seeing their true reactions as if they were in college waiting to hear their names called in the green room. We've got Papa H and now Papa HBK.
- In "what will he say next" Tony Khan news, he did an interview with TMZ Sports in which he said his Weinstein WWE comments got tons of coverage for AEW. So if you thought he would stop the anti-WWE stuff and focus on his own brand, he clearly thinks this strategy is working for him and his company. In other words, expect more stupid things to fall out of his mouth.
- Backlash has no heat and overall, feels pretty mediocre. Maybe there shouldn't be a PLE weeks after WM.
- And one more, it's booking more than anything but right now, I was wrong about Priest. He doesn't feel like a world champion and Drew needs the belt asap. You can't do weeks of Truth comedy and Judgement Day club house routines with Finn, JD, and Dom making asses out of themselves and then expect Priest to be taken seriously as a champion. Turns out, Rhea Ripley was the Judgement Day.
- The NXT call-ups were wholesome af. Loved seeing their true reactions as if they were in college waiting to hear their names called in the green room. We've got Papa H and now Papa HBK.
- In "what will he say next" Tony Khan news, he did an interview with TMZ Sports in which he said his Weinstein WWE comments got tons of coverage for AEW. So if you thought he would stop the anti-WWE stuff and focus on his own brand, he clearly thinks this strategy is working for him and his company. In other words, expect more stupid things to fall out of his mouth.
- Backlash has no heat and overall, feels pretty mediocre. Maybe there shouldn't be a PLE weeks after WM.
- And one more, it's booking more than anything but right now, I was wrong about Priest. He doesn't feel like a world champion and Drew needs the belt asap. You can't do weeks of Truth comedy and Judgement Day club house routines with Finn, JD, and Dom making asses out of themselves and then expect Priest to be taken seriously as a champion. Turns out, Rhea Ripley was the Judgement Day.
I don’t anyone pays much attention to the minor PLE bc it’s more about storyline progression and the major PLE (rr/wm/ss/ss) are where the big things happen like title changes and big returns like punk.
Agree. Historically the PPV after Mania is one of the lowest watched. A lot of times it’s just WM run backs.
I usually catch them all because Peacock is cheap, but I would only buy the big 4 and maybe MITB if I were paying $50 a pop for them like back in the day.
True. I mean, the crowd should be hot since it's France and I'll check it out but it's just hard to believe Damien Priest vs Jey Uso for the (Raw) title is a real thing lol.
The good news is the ratings for Collision were overall very good.
However the bad news, the first segment started with 1.35 million viewers and a .49 in the demo.
By the end of the show it was down to 440,000 viewers and a .15 in the demo.
By the end of Rampage is was down to 276,000 and a .08
However the bad news, the first segment started with 1.35 million viewers and a .49 in the demo.
By the end of the show it was down to 440,000 viewers and a .15 in the demo.
By the end of Rampage is was down to 276,000 and a .08
I can’t even process his you can lose 900k viewers. Your show is so un entertaining, you lost that many fans, lol. Clown show
Jey Uso should have been demoted to US title status after that WrestleMania match
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